Earth-Friendly Design
Keeping true to its cause as a green phone, the Replenish is constructed with "reduced environmentally sensitive materials," according the Sprint. Its materials are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and phthalates, beryllium, and brominated flame retardants. If this means nothing to you, don't worry--you're not alone.
Basically, the Replenish meets the European Union's Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, which limits the use of certain chemicals and materials in electronics. Furthermore, the Replenish's casing includes 34.6 percent post-consumer recycled plastic content. According to Sprint and Samsung, 82 percent of the phone is made from recyclable materials.
Okay, that's great and everything, but how does the Replenish look? Well, I can't say that it is the prettiest phone. The face is piano black with chrome detailing while the backing has a slight texture to it. It isn't ugly, by any means, but it does look a bit plasticky. We got a black review unit, but the phone also comes in a slightly more attractive "Arctic Blue" as well as "Raspberry Pink" (which isn't coming until June).
The face of this phone (measuring 4.84-by-2.36-by-0.45 inches) is split between a 2.4-inch display and a full QWERTY keyboard. Four hardware buttons separate the keyboard from the display (your standard Menu, Home, Back and Search keys). The 2.4-inch QVGA display is decent for basic apps, reading e-mails/texts and looking at certain Websites, but the low resolution and smallish size doesn't make it ideal for watching video.
The full-QWERTY keyboard isn't the best I've ever used, but it is decent enough for hammering out messages and short e-mails. It is a bit on the narrow side and the keys could be better contoured (ala the BlackBerry keyboards) for more comfortable typing. I fear that people with larger hands might have a harder time using this keyboard.
Eco Features
The Replenish runs standard, unadulterated Android 2.2 (better known as Froyo), so there's no custom interface overlay. We've written a lot about Froyo in the past, so check out our hands-on of this version of .
Last October, Sprint introduced --packages of mobile apps, wallpapers, and themes designed for specific groups such as sports fans, fitness fanatics, or auto enthusiasts. Naturally, the Replenish comes loaded with the Sprint ID Green Pack. The homescreen is loaded with the latest in all things green from TreeHugger.com (one of my favorite's), Earth.911 and GreenBiz.com. You also get access to videos TreeHugger TV as well as Earth911's iRecycle app, which makes it easy to find recycling drop-off sites.
Flip to the right, and you'll see the "Live Green" screen, which includes a widget that gives tips from Green America and a link to the Green You app, which is a carbon footprint calculator. Flip to the left of the homescreen and you'll see the "Shop Green" screen, which includes a widget from GreenDeals.org, which is sort of an eco version of Groupon. There's also a link to EcoEtsy.com and eBay Green. One neat option is the Replenish's solar charging battery cover which lets you charge your phone on the go. The cover is sold separately, but Sprint has not announced pricing for it. We didn't get one in for testing, which is unfortunate since we're having rare sunny weather in San Francisco this week! Solar chargers/cases take quite a bit of time to give your phone more battery juice, but it is a clever idea to sell an optional backing. I do wish it came included with the phone, however.
The Replenish's charger meets the which again, doesn't really mean much to the average consumer. One useful feature, however, is that it will give you a visual alert when it is fully charged.
Mediocre Camera
The Replenish's 2-megapixel camera is nothing to write home about. It has no flash, so photos taken in lowly lit environments look fuzzy and dark. Photos taken indoors had a bit of a dark cast to them--even with sufficient lighting. My outdoor photos had nice colors, but details were a bit blurry.
The Replenish also has video capture, but my videos looked about as fuzzy as my photos.
Spotty Performance
The Replenish froze and crashed quite a few times during my hands-on review. While I was navigating through the App Drawer, the phone froze and then went into hands-free activation for driving --even though I didn't select that option. When I tried to add a new Sprint ID pack, Replenish required me to do a force shut down. Finally, I had to restart the Replenish for the Sprint ID pack to actually work.
Call quality was decent over Sprint's Network in San Francisco. Even though I was making my calls on the busy city streets, my colleagues couldn't hear anything in the background with the exception of a large truck going by. My contacts reported that I sounded loud and clear and that my voice sounded fairly natural. Oddly, I couldn't really say the same for my friends' voices. It sounded like they were speaking too close to the speaker-even though they swore they weren't.
Bottom Line
Nobody loves the environment more than I do-seriously. I applaud Sprint for its sustainability efforts. From contributing money to the Nature Conservancy to initiating an aggressive cell phone recycling program, more tech companies should follow in Sprint's footsteps. That said, I'm still not sold on a "green" phone. It is a neat idea, but manufacturers need to figure out a way to make a phone both desirable and green. The Replenish's low-resolution display, mediocre camera and buggy performance just don't do the trick.
On the plus side, Sprint is offering some nice incentives to go green. Priced at $50, the phone is incredibly inexpensive, and you can sign up for Sprint's Everything Data plan for unlimited text, Web and calling for just $70 per month. Furthermore, Sprint is waiving the $10 monthly premium data add-on charge for going green. The Replenish is a good deal with good intentions--if you can get past underwhelming and occasional crashing.